Ultimate Wolverine Vol. 1: The Winter Soldier

Ultimate Wolverine #1

by Chris Condon, Alessandro Cappuccio (Artist), Alex Lins (Artist)

Ultimate Spider-Man, Ultimate Black Panther, Ultimate X-Men, the Ultimates and now finally Ultimate Wolverine is unleashed into the new universe as it reaches a pivotal turning point.

THE ULTIMATE WINTER SOLDIER: WOLVERINE

To maintain control of their corner of the Maker’s world, three members of his council — Magik, Colossus and Omega Red — deploy their most lethal asset: The Winter Soldier! But who is the weapon behind the mask…with the claws?

This Ultimate Wolverine will be put to the test by seeing how well he handles the Opposition — a group fighting for mutant liberation.

But when the Winter Soldier leads a strike against two members of the Opposition — Kitty Pryde and Gambit — will they recognize their deadly enemy?

COLLECTING: Ultimate Wolverine (2025) 1-6

Genres: Comics, Marvel, Graphic Novels, X Men, Fiction, Superheroes, Graphic Novels Comics

160 pages, Paperback

First published September 16, 2025

Reviews

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bucky? Is that you?
No, wrong guy.
This time around, Logan is part of the Winter Soldier program.



I could never really get interested in this one. There just wasn't enough story to it, if that makes sense?
Wolverine is set loose on all kinds of people, and he does his thing. But until the end of the volume, you don't get any kind of backstory on who he is or how he got there. And even then, it's not much.



Colossus and Magik have experiments going on with mutants in Russia and Eurasia. There is (of course) an underground resistance that eventually recognizes Logan, but the story is mainly told from the viewpoint of one of the evil scientists. Maybe I'm not a big enough X-Men comic reader to really get this one.



But also, I'm just not a fan of this kind of storytelling. It's not bad, it just wasn't (for me) all that great.

Recommended for fans of Wolverine.

[Khurram · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. This is Wolverine taken back to his violent and violated basics. It is not a new spin on what is actually done to Wolverine but who has actually done it to him.

The Maker has changed the course of the mutants by silencing a number of the most prominent voices of the mutants before they could be heard, but there is still opposition to his new world order. However, a captured soldier reprogrammed might change the course of the war back in the Maker's favour.

This book is not just how the Ultimate Wolverine should be but how the Ultimate X-MEN should have been. I loved the artwork on the first four chapters/issues. The last two were okay but felt like a bit of a downgrade. No disrespect to the artist but to start with an anime style to a normal cartoon style does not work for me.

I am of two minds about the page of text at the end of every chapter. It is informative but I think there should be a way to incorporate it into the actual story, but I do understand that space is limited and I am used to it happening in the main X-MEN books. I think there are a lot of interesting stories ahead, I would also be interested in finding out why all the rebels look like they have claw scars on their faces. The book finishes with a variant cover gallery.

[Oscar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lots of violence and blood! 4.7 🌟

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.25
Another excellent Ultimate title that's better than the 616 counterpart.

It just feels more Wolverine. And a more compelling story.

A lot of Wolverine writers it seems try too hard to be who they think Wolverine is. And it just comes off as generic and surface level.

[Paul · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.25 stars

[Jesús De la Jara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Este cómic lo leí porque sabía que aparecía una versión de Magika malvada, y como siempre algunas portadas con ella son muy buenas.
Maker creó un mundo nuevo y ahí un tridente compuesto por Omega Red, Magik y Colossus controlan la República Euroasiática creando un Directorio X. Este grupo capturó a Wolverine y le borraron los recuerdos rebautizándolo como Winter Soldier. En efecto, tiene ese especie de bozal que cubre su boca.
La dra Prostovich tiene bajo control a Wolverine, los Rasputin son escépticos y deciden ponerlo a prueba. Mientras este grupo malvado trata de usarlo, también están los demás que pugnan por combatir a la República Euroasiática. Entre ellos están Gambito y Kitty e, el primero mató a Mikhail Rasputin. También van apareciendo muchos más.
Interesante el cómic ya que ver a Magik como malvada es interesante. Así mismo, ella tiene el control de esa parte aunque conforme avanza el cómic pierde protagonismo. Logan por su parte se ve muy bien y las imágenes son crudas como en un cómic de él.

[Pruett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: WOLVERINE IS BRAINWASHED AND DOESN’T REMEMBER HIS PAST!

It’s not the most original Wolverine take in the world, which sort of invalidates the whole “Ultimate” conceit, but the art is really great and the costume is cool.

I asked Nadine to pick up one of the issues for me when I was at work one day, and she got swarmed by a couple of 30-something-year-old dudes at the comic shop asking her how it was, so if that’s your demographic, you’ll probably dig this.

[Rylan · Rating 5 out of 5]

really enjoyed this it reminds me a lot of windsor smith’s weapon x (which is very high praise). i was always the most interested in euroasia from the maker’s council mainly due to magik, so it was nice to finally see that side of this universe. it’s very bleak and haunting which fits perfectly with logan and the winter soldier. my only issue with this is that i don’t really feel like parts of this live up to the amalgamation of wolverine and winter soldier, like it feels mostly like the weapon x stuff placed in russia i think they could have played up the winter soldier angle more.

[Frédéric · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had a lot of trouble getting into the first issues. Condon plays – badly – at being clever with a narrative that becomes confusing and overly drawn out. The atmosphere is cold and gloomy – which is good – but undermined by Capuccio, who is far from sparkling on this title, where he seems to have rushed his pencils and used lazy storytelling.
A narrative trick turns things around halfway through, and the title starts to get more interesting as stakes begin to be raised and we discover fellow mutants outside of Peach Momoko's series. What's more, Alex Lins replaces Capuccio, and I must admit I much prefer his style.

[Jessica · Rating 2 out of 5]

The art is gorgeous in a gruesome way, but the story is lacking. It's fun to see the alternate world X-Men when they pop up, but it's tough to sell me on a comic where the protagonist doesn't speak and basically just mindlessly murders people. I'm really interested in where the series goes after the last issue in this volume, but I hope there are fewer extended dream sequences.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh, so that’s what Darren Aronofsky’s Wolverine movie would have looked like.

[Dakota Morgan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Less imaginative than the other Ultimate lines, at least until the end, where it's revealed that this will be the actual X-Men series (not whatever Peach Momoko is doing). Wolverine is the Winter Soldier, basically, brainwashed into a killing machine by Russian baddies (Colossus, Magik, Omega red). Gradually, over the course of six blood-soaked issues, he overcomes his programming.

It's predictable, really, even with the Ultimate twists. The whole volume is setup for the real series, which will presumably begin now that Wolverine is released and with the underground X-Men. About the only interesting part here was the twist on Sabretooth (a friendly good guy!). The art is suited to Wolverine's slashing ways, though most of the action is obscured by the dark coloring.

[FrontalNerdaty · Rating 4 out of 5]

A brainwashed Wolverine that doesn’t remember his past and is running around angry and aggressive? Groundbreaking. Yet somehow here it does feel somewhat fresh. Whilst Logan is the main character we get much more insight from the other characters and you see how Logan, The Winter Solider, is being used. It makes Logan’s situation feel more organic and less ‘been there, done that’
The issues showing us Logan’s psyche are great and there are plenty of introductions to the Ultimate versions of established characters throughout.

4/5

[MannyLikesPie · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 The art is incredible. The writing from Green arrow and here loses me a lot during the middle, which is hard when you have to wait a month for the next part. Well I enjoy the authors writing, I’d say wait for when the whole arc is finished instead of doing an ongoing

[ShamNoop · Rating 3 out of 5]

This series starts out with so much potential, so much excitement, so many hints at great things to come. At least in this first volume, it doesn’t squander all that feeling *completely*.
There’s some decent worldbuilding that is unfortunately not at all up to par with what the rest of the comics in this universe have set up; there is a supporting cast that the writer doesn’t seem to be interested in at all as characters but as functional tools to push forward the plot; there is a main character that does not work at all as a main character and would be better off as a mystery box villain in some other comic.
There’s some attempts at interesting storytelling here, like the one issue that’s entirely a metaphor for Logan’s internal struggle that’s riffing off of Barry Windsor-Smith’s classic Weapon X, or the way Nightcrawler is presented as a moral event horizon, but very little of it sticks, very little of it is memorable or substantial. It’s just disappointing overall.
But at least the art is brilliant, although I can’t help but be even more disappointed that Cappuccio left Moon Knight for this.

[Zachary Palmer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kind of bummed with all the fresh ultimate takes that this one is pretty much every other brainwashed Wolverine story, but the ending of it has me curious for what comes next!

[Gabriel · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a mix of a retelling of Weapon X and Winter Soldier early stories, but it never reaches the potential it could.

Wolverine is tortured and is forced to become a weapon without thoughts and is this universe's Winter Soldier. It's an interesting concept, but there's nothing really new in this. The only things that stand out are Colossus and Magik being the heads of this evil group that controls Wolverine. Wolverine's time as the WS feels short and there is one particular issue that is just wasted with a wolf vs a bear that's supposed to be symbolic, but it just feels as if it's trying to copy Weapon X.
I'll follow because I'm a Wolverine fan, but everything feels rushed. I hope there is a massive payoff as the story continues.

I almost wish that this story just fully embraced the Winter Soldier/Weapon X concept and had a tragic story of Wolverine fully becoming a ruthless mercenary that needs to be put down for good at the end of the run. No possible revenge/awakening arc, just a complete mind wipe with his former pals having to deal with this and come to terms with this sad reality. It's the Ultimate Universe that is soon coming to an end, so why not commit to something different?

6/10

[Nathan Bissett · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an incredibly standard Wolverine story with "Ultimate" slapped on it and a lazy, brief "evil" arc before coming back to being on the right side.

The art elevates this incredibly subar addition to the Ultimate Universe.

[Brad McKeehan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The coolest part by far is how the other characters surrounding Wolverine, allies and villains alike, fill different roles in this story. As far as the story itself, it’s still too familiar to really be fresh, but Wolverine fans will still enjoy.

[Yasmine · Rating 5 out of 5]

this might be better than ultimate spider-man.

[Gabriel Calderón · Rating 4 out of 5]

Poor Logan man

[Jourdy · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Ultimate Universe 🤝 Absolute Universe giving new perspectives on characters while being true to said characters

[NewWorldGod · Rating 4 out of 5]

8/10

[Atomread W. Megaforce · Rating 3 out of 5]

liest sich wie ein ewig langes "Was zuvor geschah".

[Ronald · Rating 3 out of 5]

OK, not bad but ... to review:

Wolverine has lost all memory (Again).
Wolverine is under control of evil (again).
Wolverine has forgotten his true friends (again).
Wolverine has attacked and killed his friends and people who knew the old him (again).
Wolverine does terrible things for bad people to possibly innocent people (again).
Friends of Wolverine try to fix his brain / restore memories (again).
Then there was Legion... only reason I'm going to read the next volume.

There is nothing here we have not seen before. I was hoping for something new, Spider-Man & X-Men had new spins and were interesting in this rebooted Ultimate Universe. Oh well.

[Alex Sarll]

Marvel have been remarkably, uncharacteristically restrained with their current Ultimate line. After the launch event, there were four books; lead title Ultimates made a point of introducing various potential spin-offs, at least one of which (Ultimate Guardians) I would have read the hell out of, but none were picked up. Recently, it was announced that once its initial two-year story is done, and big bad the Maker returns, that's it: the imprint is done, the books finish. A sort of planned closure rarely afforded to corporate superheroes, let alone whole worlds, presumably motivated by a desire for reasonably self-contained books which can become perennial sellers, a department in which Marvel is well behind DC.

Which makes it all the more puzzling that the one extra book they did let the line add was this profoundly unnecessary retread.

Yeah, sure, Logan is called the Winter Soldier here, was remade in the frozen north of Eurasia rather than America. And yes, we get the standard alternate world beats of his tormentors and victims being characters we know from mainstream continuity as his friends. But haven't we seen all that plenty of times before, with the X-Men more than most? Ditto the main thrust of the story where, wouldn't you know it, he's been brainwashed into a killer for sinister forces! Sure, it all looks good, especially when it's Cappuccio on art (though I'd still rather he'd stayed on Moon Knight, a book worthy of his skills). And OK, I liked the take on Sabertooth, something I'm not sure I've ever said before. But this remains a superfluity, a dilution.

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one was a mixed bag for me - I didn't really get into or enjoy the first half of the book where Wolverine was the new Winter Soldier for the Russian government. That was mostly because Logan was mindless and being controlled, so we didn't get any dialogue or perspective from him. Once the other mutants began trying to rescue Wolverine, then I became interested and mostly enjoyed the rest of the story. I also would have liked to see how this story (and the other mutants) tie into the new Ultimate universe, other than a brief cameo by the Maker.

[Sesana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hardly an innovative Wolverine story, but it is a very well executed one.

[Christopher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Starts off very cold and mysterious (appropriately) and does a great job of cracking open the mutant side of the UU.

[Chris W · Rating 3 out of 5]

Starts off strong then returns back to something similar to classic Wolverine. I wish they took more risks with this take on the character